BEST OF
DARK
SHOEGAZE & DREAMPOP
2025

The seventeenth album from Florida-based ethereal wave duo Autumn’s Grey Solace.

Based in St. Augustine, Florida, Autumn’s Grey Solace was formed in 2000 by multi-instrumentalist and composer Scott Ferrell and vocalist Erin Welton. Although Winterrim (2012) is technically a compilation without newly recorded material—making this their sixteenth original studio album—the band officially counts it as their seventeenth release, a designation followed here.

Before diving into the album itself, a brief note on ethereal wave as a genre may be helpful. Ethereal wave is generally understood as a subgenre of darkwave, emerging in the early 1980s from gothic rock and post-punk. Within the 4AD roster, particularly atmospheric acts such as Cocteau Twins and This Mortal Coil were frequently described as “ethereal,” a term that eventually became shorthand for a distinct sonic and aesthetic approach. The word itself traces back to “aether,” the fifth element in ancient Greek cosmology, later theorized in early modern science as a medium for light and electromagnetic waves—concepts now scientifically obsolete, but linguistically preserved to describe something otherworldly, delicate, and transcendent.

Owing to its roots in early gothic rock and post-punk, ethereal wave occupies a connective space between gothic music and shoegaze–dream pop. Cocteau Twins, in particular, continues to be cited as a key originator respected across both scenes, reinforcing the idea that gothic and shoegaze share a deep aesthetic affinity. This lineage was later carried forward by Projekt Records, founded in 1983 by Sam Rosenthal of Black Tape for a Blue Girl, which introduced genre-defining artists such as Love Spirals Downwards and Lycia. Autumn’s Grey Solace emerged in the early 2000s as part of this extended tradition.

Ferrell began playing guitar at the age of fourteen and gradually expanded to a wide range of instruments; across the band’s catalog, bass, drums, mandolin, and most other instrumental parts are largely handled by him. Early influences reportedly included Dead Can Dance, Cocteau Twins, The Cure, and The Smiths. Welton, by contrast, developed her distinctive, fairy-like vocal style entirely through self-study, citing influences as varied as Dead Can Dance’s Lisa Gerrard, Morrissey, and Madonna. (Notably, Autumn’s Grey Solace has also contributed a cover of “Musica Eternal” to Projekt Records’ Dead Can Dance tribute.)

Sonically, the band’s shimmering guitar textures often recall Cocteau Twins, yet their frequent use of minor keys lends the music a distinctly melancholic tone—well suited to autumn evenings and nocturnal listening. This characteristic mood is fully preserved on “The Dark Space.”

#1 “Forever Dreaming” opens the album with a warm, acoustic-led arrangement, introducing an unexpectedly impish vocal delivery that briefly suggests a shift in direction. That impression quickly fades as #2 “Catch My Canaries” returns to Welton’s familiar, fragile timbre. Following a subdued, wistful arpeggio, her soaring soprano evokes the spiritual gravity often associated with Dead Can Dance. #3 “Darkens the Soul” unfolds with a rain-soaked, nocturnal melody that feels quintessentially Autumn’s Grey Solace, while #4 “Silhouettes of Light” pairs luminous guitar passages with a quietly sorrowful motif, etching emotional contrast much like shadows cast by light itself. It stands as one of the album’s clear highlights.

The remainder of the record maintains this level of quality, drawing the listener ever deeper into a consistently decadent and immersive sound world. Even at seventeen albums in, the duo’s creative vitality shows no sign of diminishing—a fact that commands respect. One might be tempted to say that as long as Autumn’s Grey Solace exists, ethereal wave remains alive. Still, the relative scarcity of direct successors is difficult to ignore. Among younger artists, deary comes to mind as a partial parallel. Yet with renewed interest in Cocteau Twins and Slowdive among Gen Z shoegaze listeners, ethereal wave itself appears to be gradually regaining attention. The emergence of a new generation within the genre feels not only possible, but likely.

For those wondering where to begin within such an extensive discography, a few recommendations follow:

• “Over the Ocean” (2nd album): Their first release after signing with Projekt Records, offering a well-balanced interplay of light and darkness. The opening track “Waning Faithful” is particularly striking in its melancholy.
• “Shades of Grey” (4th album): More overtly gothic, with heavier shoegaze elements. “Angel of Light” is often cited as one of the band’s definitive shoegaze tracks.
• “Ablaze” (5th album): An energetic and varied record, spanning catchy compositions, classical grandeur, and darker, progressive-leaning gothic material. Its status as one of the label’s best-selling releases is well earned.
• “Englelícra” (12th album): A refined, high-purity distillation of melodic beauty—arguably one of the genre’s aesthetic high points.

In truth, nearly every album in their catalog offers something worthwhile, making it difficult to choose a wrong entry point. The listening experience may also resonate with fans of what is sometimes described in the Japanese indie sphere as “fantasy-floating” music, and could appeal to listeners drawn to artists such as ZABADAK, Akino Arai, or, more recently, Ichiko Aoba.

The first mini-album from PLOTOLEMS, an alternative rock band based in Tokyo. The project began as a solo endeavor by Sakurem (Gt/Vo), before Sho (Dr) joined in July 2020, marking the band’s full-fledged launch. They subsequently released their debut EP A FICTION (2020), followed by A GHOST (2022). With the addition of Fujimoto (Ba), PLOTOLEMS now operate as a three-piece.

I first encountered the band at the September 2022 edition of Total Feedback, a shoegaze-focused live event. Going in completely unfamiliar with their work, I was struck by how markedly different they sounded: amid a lineup of relatively accessible acts, PLOTOLEMS stood out with an uncompromisingly dark and confrontational approach. I later left an excited comment on Twitter, describing my initial impression as “coldwave × industrial × shoegaze—a cold, beautiful sound like a blue flame burning in the darkness. The pairing of icy keyboards and an ennui-laden vocal recalls the lineage of coldwave acts such as Asylum Party, while the more electronic tracks suggest an affinity with Skinny Puppy or SOFT BALLET.”

That impression only deepened with A GHOST, which drew me further into their world. (For the record, my standout track from that EP remains “This City is Hell.”)

On this release, PLOTOLEMS once again deliver a boundary-crossing sound that deftly blends alternative rock with shoegaze, noise, industrial, and new wave. The result is a relentlessly dark vision that fully embodies their self-described aesthetic of “Japanese Industrial Horror Dark Alternative.” Sakurem’s vocals—simultaneously childlike and unhinged—have grown even more expressive, shifting fluidly from fragile clean passages to scream-like outbursts, dragging the listener ever deeper into madness.

What follows are brief impressions of each track:

#1 “Watching”
Industrial textures rumble up from what feels like the murky depths of dark water, recalling the mechanical pulse of factory machinery. Shamanic, ritualistic resonances evoke an ancient ceremony, guiding the listener into a hypnotic state.

#2 “int main()”
A fast-moving track brimming with blue-tinged impulse and anxiety, reminiscent of early ART-SCHOOL. It is the album’s most immediately catchy moment and all but guaranteed to resonate powerfully in a live setting.

#3 “4294967296”
From here, PLOTOLEMS fully assert their identity. Sakurem’s raw shouts and blistering, glitch-like guitar noise scorch the brain. The imbalance between the rampaging noise and the coldly persistent keyboard lines becomes strangely addictive. The numbers chanted in a depressive monotone feel like a countdown toward annihilation. According to Wikipedia, 4,294,967,296 represents the maximum addressable memory space of a 32-bit CPU—an intriguing detail that conjures images of an afterlife overflowing, the dead spilling into networks with nowhere else to go. Seen this way, the sequence even begins to resemble a string of ominous symbols, such as death (4) and suffering (9), lending the track an additional layer of unease.

#4 “Chain”
A decadent industrial piece built on a minimal beat, punctuated by cold piano phrases. Echoes of Cold Meat Industry-era dark ambient and industrial acts—such as In Slaughter Natives—linger here, gradually implanting an indescribable sense of dread.

#5 “Crazy Dream”
The track opens with a shoegaze/post-rock-inspired introduction, lulling the listener into a hazy waking dream, before abruptly hurling them into hell with pitch-black noise and feral shouts. Its cruelty borders on the sadistic, eliciting an involuntary, uneasy laugh.

#6 “NECTAR”
Just as the listener relaxes into the harmony of languid, sweet vocals and a pulsating bassline, they are suddenly struck by a massive guitar assault. There is no such thing as safety with PLOTOLEMS.

#7 “paranoia”
An erratic, destabilizing closer that feels like being trapped inside a mirrored box and sent tumbling downhill. Metal-piercing piano strikes and gravel-spraying guitar noise crash in relentlessly. Maintaining sanity under such conditions feels almost impossible.

Seven tracks, twenty-eight minutes in total—this is a true horror anthology experienced through sound. When PLOTOLEMS contributed a shimmering track to the Total Feedback 2024 compilation, I briefly wondered whether they might be shifting toward a brighter direction. That concern proved entirely unfounded. One can only hope they continue to plunge ever deeper into the abyss.

The title para?anomaly also invites interpretation. Horror fans will naturally think first of Paranormal Activity, but by inserting a question mark and separating the word into “para” (against) and “anomaly” (abnormality), the sense of estrangement is heightened. Read another way, “para” can imply “parallel,” suggesting that anomalies are not exceptions but are omnipresent. In that sense, the title seems to pose a question: if “abnormality” exists everywhere as a matter of course, is labeling it as abnormal itself not already an aberration? This line of thought recalls the sentiment of a certain manga quote: “Who, exactly, can guarantee the sanity of your gods?”
This is, of course, only one possible interpretation.

The artwork is equally compelling. The gaping, tree-hollow-like void in the face is grotesque yet strangely beautiful. I am also particularly fond of the alternate cover—featuring a faceless, fictional figure—which evokes the aesthetic sensibilities of Travis Smith. Merchandise, especially a T-shirt, would be more than welcome.

The fifth album by kuragari, a Japanese bedroom shoegaze artist. Following kuragari’s selection as this site’s Best Album of 2024, a new full-length arrives once again this year. The project’s defining trait—the fusion of ferocious noise and deeply melancholic melody—remains fully intact on this release.

The sound evokes the image of someone strumming a heavily distorted electric guitar and singing folk songs in the center of a cramped four-and-a-half-tatami room, surrounded by stacks of Marshall amplifiers pushed to their limits. The vocals are even more aggressively processed than before, often resembling blackgaze-style screams, with the notable exception of track #6, “(ff) Oboeteiru!” Frankly, kuragari continues to push things to extremes with remarkable consistency.

Personally, I refer to this kind of relentlessly overdriven, noise-saturated shoegaze as “auditory destruction”—and within that niche, kuragari stands entirely alone. The sheer intensity of the sound design eclipses that of any peers, granting the project a singular presence even within this already abrasive subgenre. Adding to this aura is the fact that virtually nothing is known about kuragari beyond their identity as a Japanese artist, further reinforcing the project’s sense of isolation and mystique.

Turning to the lyrics, however, the emotional core reveals itself as unexpectedly nostalgic, reflecting on cherished moments from the past. The album title Tenhou refers to one of the rarest winning hands in mahjong, with odds said to be approximately one in 330,000. It is tempting to interpret this as a metaphor for the near-impossible miracle of encountering someone irreplaceable among the billions of people on Earth, and sharing a fleeting but meaningful span of time together.

Another distinctive feature lies in the use of musical notation within the lyrics themselves: ||: :|| (repeat sign), Fine, D.C. (Da Capo), 8va (Ottava), # (sharp), and ff (fortissimo). Reading the lyrics with an understanding of these symbols may reveal additional layers of meaning, making this an album that rewards close listening and textual engagement.

That said, caution is advised when adjusting the volume. The noise level rivals that of Ulver’s third album, and listening at excessive levels will almost certainly take its toll. Your ears are an essential asset in any long-term relationship with music—enjoy responsibly.

A five-track EP released in 2025 by Violet Cold, a blackgaze artist from Azerbaijan. Violet Cold is the solo project of Emin Guliyev, based in Baku. Initially inspired by Alcest, his early output centered on melodic blackgaze in a similar vein. Over time, however, his sound expanded dramatically, absorbing elements of ambient, post-classical music, traditional folk, EDM, breakcore, and hip hop, resulting in a highly distinctive and idiosyncratic artistic identity. This refusal to be confined by genre conventions has earned him a reputation as a kind of trickster within the blackgaze scene.

Following the 2023 album Multiverse, Violet Cold released a series of stylistically diverse singles that ranged from post-classical and lo-fi hip hop to rave-oriented material. Against this backdrop of unpredictability, the arrival of a fully synthwave-oriented EP is unexpected, yet entirely in character. While comparisons to Abstract Void may seem inevitable, the underlying approach differs significantly. Where Abstract Void places blackgaze at the core and supplements it with synthwave textures, Violet Cold reverses the balance, foregrounding synthwave while integrating blackgaze as a secondary but essential component.

The most compelling track is #2, “Nightfall.” Driven by an energetic dance beat, the track’s glossy, exuberant synths immediately evoke neon-lit cityscapes and crowded nightclubs. Even when judged strictly from a synthwave perspective, the execution is notably strong. Emotional clean vocals intersect with malicious screams, preserving blackgaze’s defining contrast between beauty and aggression. The ease with which these disparate elements are combined once again underscores Violet Cold’s skill in transforming seemingly incompatible materials into a cohesive whole.

Shortly after this EP, Violet Cold released the single “Oh My Goth I'm Emo” which further unsettled expectations through its unconventional fusion of pop punk, blackgaze, and anime-influenced Japanese female vocals. The vocals appear to be generated via vocaloid software, yet the use of fluent and meaningful Japanese lyrics adds another layer of intrigue. That an artist from Azerbaijan would venture into territory adjacent to mikgazer was hardly foreseeable. It is tempting to speculate that Violet Cold could one day produce a fully realized, moe-leaning shoegaze release on the scale of a Hanazawa EP—though history suggests he will likely surpass even such predictions with ease.

The seventh album by Unreqvited, a post-black metal / blackgaze project from Canada. Unreqvited is the solo project of Oni (Ghost), and since its debut in 2016, Oni has consistently crafted dramatic works that fuse the violent intensity of black metal with grand, symphonic arrangements built from piano and strings.

This album marks a significant new step for the project, most notably through the full-fledged introduction of clean vocals, pushing Unreqvited into previously unexplored territory. The opening track, #1 “Overture: I Disintegrate,” immediately signals this shift, featuring Oni’s own beautiful clean singing set against a melancholic piano accompaniment. While choral textures have appeared in past releases, this is the first time vocals have taken such a central, fully realized role.

#2 “The Antimatter” begins with Unreqvited’s trademark symphonic blast, then unfolds through deft shifts in dynamics, weaving clean vocals and screams into a highly dramatic structure. It feels like a symbolic piece that reflects the project’s past, present, and future all at once. The album’s clear highlight, however, is #3 “The Starforger.” Opening with a sorrowful arpeggio, the track gradually develops as mystical synths intertwine with plaintive guitar lines, before erupting in the chorus with an intensely emotional vocal performance. The sheer beauty of the voice—reminiscent of TesseracT’s Daniel Tompkins—is genuinely striking.

Tracks such as #4 “Void Essence / Frozen Tears” and #5 “Into the Starlit Beyond” take on a mid-tempo, post-rock-inflected approach, where the contrast between clean vocals and screams is especially effective. Shimmering tremolo guitars and luminous synths spread out like stars filling the celestial sphere. The closing track, #7 “Departure: Everlasting Dream,” is a gentle, end-credit-worthy piece built around piano and strings. Motifs from “The Starforger” return like fragments of memory, quietly bringing the story to its conclusion.

This is an innovative work that showcases Unreqvited’s evolution in a progressive and deeply dramatic direction. Listening with your eyes closed, vast, sci-fi-like visions naturally emerge in the mind. When the album ended, I found myself recalling the emotional final scenes of Christopher Nolan’s Interstellar—but what kind of story did it evoke for you?

From May 2025, Unreqvited will embark on a North American tour alongside Tribulation and Unto Others. It will be fascinating to see how Unreqvited’s music translates into a full band performance. Given the project’s past connection through a split release with Japanese act Asunojokei, one can’t help but hope for a future Japan tour as well.

The debut album from Self Destruction in Your Dreams, a depressive blackgaze band hailing from Gifu, Japan. The album was recorded by a five-piece lineup consisting of A. Aoki (guitar/vocals), Nonono (guitar, keyboards, vocals), Takeuchi (guitar), Shokujihokoku Niki (bass), and Redkensamba (drums).

Many listeners will already be familiar with blackgaze—the fusion of black metal and shoegaze—thanks to bands such as Alcest and Deafheaven, so let us begin with a brief explanation of depressive black metal. In the early 1990s, Norwegian black metal became notorious for its extreme image, shaped in part by church burnings and murder cases associated with the so-called “Inner Circle.” By contrast, depressive black metal turns inward, delving deeply into themes of anguish, despair, depression, and suicide, and cultivating an overwhelmingly bleak atmosphere. Where black metal often externalizes destructive impulses, depressive black metal channels a desire for self-destruction rooted within the psyche.

Japan is widely regarded as one of the safest countries in the world, yet it is also known for widespread anxiety about the future, pervasive loneliness, and a comparatively high suicide rate. In that sense, depressive black metal resonates profoundly with the darkness many people in Japan carry within themselves. With that preface out of the way, let us turn to the album itself.

The record opens with the brief poetry reading of #1, “Five Seconds of Pleasure,” before plunging headlong into #2, “Hitodenashi no Koi.” Gloom-laden tremolo guitars and agonized screams drag the listener straight into hell, while female choirs and fragile keyboard lines are woven throughout, creating a stark contrast between darkness and beauty that will immediately grip fans of blackgaze. A breakdown introduces a spoken-word passage, followed by a renewed eruption of shrieks and wall-of-sound guitars as the track surges toward its climax. Despite running over nine minutes, the song’s dynamic shifts keep it compelling from start to finish.

The opening of #3, “Tomoshibi,” features a melody that strongly recalls “Theme of Laura” from Silent Hill 2. It is practically an anthem of the horror-game and depression-game canon, so if this is your first encounter, consider it a lesson worth taking home. From there, a piercing scream ushers in a waltz-like piano passage before the track hurtles into a blistering fast section. Razor-sharp chugging riffs take over, relentlessly fueling the urge to headbang, until the waltz piano returns once more. The Theme of Laura–esque melody reappears, closing the song in a circular structure that seems to suggest an endless cycle of despair. At over ten minutes long, it is highly dramatic and unquestionably one of the album’s defining highlights.

#5, “Hitoribocchi no Shinju,” leans toward a heavy shoegaze sound, centered on Nonono’s beautifully restrained vocals. Its melody carries a distinct sense of Japanese emotional nuance, lending it a character rarely found in US shoegaze. The sudden eruption into blast beats and screams adds a thrilling jolt of violence. Elsewhere, #6, “Ame,” slowly weaves sorrow in a post-rock-like manner; #8, “Red Eyes,” unsettles the listener with ominous phrases reminiscent of late-era Emperor; and #9, “If,” sinks into a toxic mire with rotting riffs—made all the more memorable by a phrase that lands like the punchline of a dark comedy sketch. The album delivers a continuous stream of varied material, never allowing the listener a moment to catch their breath. The production is clear and powerful, making it hard to believe this is a debut album.

Turning to the lyrics, a closer look reveals a rigorously closed world inhabited only by “I” and “you,” with no third party ever entering the frame. The text overflows with negative words—death, kill, destroy, erase—to the point that one almost feels a sense of mental collapse while reading them. The sheer abnormality is exhausting. It is possible that “I” has already lost their sanity, functioning as what mystery fiction would call an “unreliable narrator,” and that the existence of “you” is merely a delusion born of “I”’s imagination. Loving this imagined “you” while simultaneously yearning for destruction creates a contradiction that breeds further madness, trapping both figures in a dreamlike world where death is endlessly repeated. The circular structure of “Tomoshibi” lends weight to this interpretation.

Self Destruction in Your Dreams is an uncannily apt name… though to be clear, everything above is purely my own speculation.

If you find this album compelling, be sure to check out their newer track “3-ban Home, Boku wa Tobikomu” as well. Its tight linkage between sound and lyrics lays bare the narrator’s completely shattered mental state, making for a genuinely terrifying experience. Turn off all the lights, curl up in your room, and listen while trembling.

The second EP from Los Angeles–based artist Amira Elfeky.

Originally from Connecticut, Amira Elfeky was introduced to early-2000s nu metal through her older brothers, growing up immersed in the heavy sounds of Deftones, Linkin Park, and Evanescence. As a teenager, her interests shifted toward hardcore, and by her late teens she had begun teaching herself guitar in her bathroom while writing songs via the BandLab app. At 18, she met producer and future manager Tylor Bondar, who was struck by her demos and offered to record her music free of charge—an early collaboration that gradually brought her closer to the sound she had been searching for.

A pivotal moment came when Elfeky impulsively searched YouTube for “Linkin Park Deftones type beat” and clicked the first result she saw. The track that followed inspired “Tonight,” an early signature song that would soon propel her into the spotlight. After she posted the song to TikTok in early July 2023, it quickly went viral, amassing millions of likes and marking the first time her name reached a global audience. The debut EP released the following March was widely praised as a defining statement of the nu-metal revival, cementing her reputation almost overnight. In retrospect, the trajectory bears notable similarities to Wisp’s rise, underscoring how TikTok-driven breakthroughs have become an established pathway rather than a fleeting trend within the contemporary music industry.

Released roughly a year after her debut EP, this second outing finds Elfeky pushing further into heavier and more emotionally charged territory. Produced in collaboration with Zakk Cervini—known for his work with Bring Me The Horizon, Pale Waves, Architects, and Poppy—the EP amplifies both weight and intensity across its runtime.

The shift is most apparent on #3 “Forever Overdose.” What begins with a mysterious, restrained verse erupts into waves of distortion and overwhelming sorrow, before cascading into an ultra-heavy breakdown triggered by Elfeky’s scream. This structural approach recurs throughout the EP, reinforcing its consistently punishing character. Notably, the increased heaviness serves to heighten one of Elfeky’s greatest strengths: her gothic-leaning, romantic melodic sensibility, which cuts through the density with striking clarity.

While the shoegaze-adjacent haze of her earlier material has receded, several outlets continue to frame her work within a Nu-Gaze context—now broadly understood as the intersection of nu metal and shoegaze. Given how widely that hybrid has entered the musical lexicon, the EP remains readily accessible to listeners beyond strictly metal-oriented circles.

Recent developments further underscore Elfeky’s accelerating momentum. Her appearances at major festivals such as Download Festival 2025, along with her selection as a support act on Bring Me The Horizon’s U.S. tour, reflect her rapidly expanding profile. Streaming figures tell a similar story: her monthly Spotify listeners reportedly climbed from around 800,000 to over one million within a week of this EP’s release.

Visually, the project’s recurring use of blue tones across its cover art and music videos is also notable. In particular, imagery in “Forever Overdose” evokes associations with Evanescence’s Fallen, a landmark release that reshaped gothic-leaning alternative music in the early 2000s.

Whether interpreted as homage or aspiration, the reference aligns with the EP’s broader sense of intent—suggesting an artist positioning herself with an eye toward lasting impact rather than fleeting virality.

Taken as a whole, this EP confirms Amira Elfeky as a formidable presence within the current heavy music landscape, and points toward a debut full-length album that carries considerable expectations.

The fourth album from Finnish solo artist Shedfromthebody.

Shedfromthebody is the solo project of Finland-based artist Suvi Savikko. With roots in visual art, Savikko operates as a fully self-contained DIY creator, handling not only the music itself but also the artwork and music videos. Since debuting in 2018, she has developed a distinctive style that blends gothic, darkwave, shoegaze, and doom metal with melodies drawn from Nordic folk traditions, forming a sound that feels both deeply shadowed and quietly mystical.

This album places particular emphasis on Nordic folk and drone / doom metal influences. Built on slow, unhurried rhythms, the music unfolds in a heavy yet hypnotic manner, while Savikko’s vocals shift fluidly between fairy-like fragility and a more witch-like, seductive presence. The result suggests a carefully balanced tension between weight and enchantment, grounding its darkness in ritualistic calm rather than sheer aggression.

A standout moment arrives on #4 “Sungazer.” Beginning with a gentle, lullaby-like introduction, the track gradually accumulates layers of heavy guitar before locking into a more animated rhythm that leads toward a trance-like state. The song carries the atmosphere of an ancient rite, and its accompanying music video—featuring Savikko dancing with shamanic intensity—further reinforces that impression.

While crossovers between Nordic folk and blackgaze are not uncommon, such a fusion remains far rarer within a doomgaze framework, positioning this album as a notably distinctive work. Fans of Dead Can Dance, Chelsea Wolfe, or Sylvaine will find much to engage with here.

The fourth album from Battle Ground, Washington–based singer-songwriter Echos.

Released via Outlast Records, an imprint under Sumerian Records, this album marks a notable turning point for the project led by vocalist and songwriter Alexandra Norton. Echos was launched when Norton was just 19 years old, with the project name drawn from a lyric in Paramore’s “Misguided Ghosts.” Until now, Echos has been widely recognized for a more electronic-driven sound that foregrounded Norton’s delicate vocal delivery.

Here, however, the palette shifts decisively darker. Heavier guitars rooted in alternative rock and nu-metal are introduced, expanding the project’s emotional and sonic range. This evolution appears to reflect not only Paramore’s longstanding influence, but also Norton’s more recent affinity for artists such as Ethel Cain and Spiritbox, both of whom explore weight, vulnerability, and atmosphere in distinct ways.

The centerpiece is #3 “QUIET, IN YOUR SERVICE.” The track feels as though it bridges alternative gothic metal and modern Nu-Gaze sensibilities, pairing dense, shadowy instrumentation with a vocal performance steeped in quiet devastation. Norton’s voice carries a profound sense of grief, cutting through the darkness with an intimacy that makes the song’s emotional weight almost overwhelming.

Elsewhere, #5 “OVER & OVER” pushes further into intensity, unveiling especially aggressive guitar work that signals just how far Echos has moved from its earlier electronic foundations. While this shift may surprise longtime listeners, it reinforces the album’s commitment to a heavier, more confrontational emotional language.

Despite the persistent darkness that follows, the closing track #9 “TOLERANCE” offers a carefully measured release. Cascading, almost mystical choral layers emerge, evoking the catharsis of dawn breaking after a long and exhausting night. Norton has spoken about how the album helped her reclaim herself while overcoming depression, and that sense of hard-won healing permeates the final moments.

Echos may invite comparison to artists such as Amira Elfeky, yet the project leans more decisively toward dreamlike atmospheres and floating textures, making it particularly accessible to listeners rooted in dream pop and shoegaze. Notably, the frequent use of the hashtag #twilightcore across Echos’ social media points toward an aesthetic shaped by the romantic, gothic sensibilities of the Twilight films—another subtle indication of how deeply Paramore’s emotional lineage continues to inform the project’s identity.

The second album from Philadelphia-based solo shoegaze project Nostalgiaisfun.

Departing sharply from the dreamier tone of its predecessor, this release embraces a far more decadent strain of shoegaze. Vast layers of reverb create a hollowed-out soundscape where vacant, whispered vocals linger like echoes in an empty room. Clean guitar tones fall like steady rainfall, guiding the listener at a slow, deliberate pace into deep melancholy rather than overwhelming them with sheer volume.

Particular attention is drawn to #4 “Decolate Circuit” and #6 “Existential Crisis,” both of which feature elegantly flowing string arrangements. Rather than relying on violins, the project incorporates viola and cello—an uncommon choice within shoegaze, where dense guitar distortion often leaves little room for such instrumentation. As a result, strings are rarely employed in the genre, yet these tracks demonstrate how, with careful arrangement, they can become a remarkably potent expressive tool.